Eating Around the World in Queens: Flushing, Jackson Heights and Astoria

Flushing: dumplings, noodles and more

At the end of the 7 line, Flushing is home to one of the largest and most varied Chinese communities outside Asia. Where Manhattan's Chinatown grew from Cantonese roots, Flushing represents regions from all over China, along with large Taiwanese and Korean communities. Main Street and the blocks around it feel like a city in their own right.

What to eat in Flushing

• Hand-pulled and knife-cut noodles, often from northwestern China, in spicy, cumin-scented broths
• Soup dumplings and pan-fried pork buns
• Sichuan cooking, with its numbing peppercorns and chili oil
• Peking duck and Cantonese roast meats from counters with ducks hanging in the window
• Bubble tea and bakeries selling egg tarts, pineapple buns and mooncakes
• Korean barbecue along Northern Boulevard, just east of downtown Flushing

Some of the best finds are in basement food courts beneath shopping malls, where dozens of tiny stalls serve regional specialties. Bring cash just in case, be ready to point at pictures, and share everything.

A little history

Flushing has a long record of welcoming newcomers. In 1657, residents signed the Flushing Remonstrance, a protest against a ban on Quaker worship that's often cited as a forerunner of the religious freedom in the Bill of Rights. The Quaker Meeting House on Northern Boulevard, built in 1694, is still standing.

Jackson Heights is also a surprise for architecture lovers. In the 1910s and 1920s, developers built it as a planned "garden city," with elegant apartment buildings wrapped around private interior gardens. Much of the neighborhood is now a historic district, and a stroll along the side streets north of 37th Avenue shows off the best of it.

On the way to Flushing, consider hopping off the 7 at 103rd Street–Corona Plaza. About a 15-minute walk from the station, the Lemon Ice King of Corona has been scooping Italian ices since 1944, and the Louis Armstrong House Museum preserves the modest home where the jazz legend lived for nearly thirty years.

Astoria: Greek tavernas and a century-old beer garden

Across the East River from the Upper East Side, Astoria is best known as the heart of Greek New York. Greek families settled here in large numbers from the 1960s onward, and the neighborhood is still the place to go for grilled octopus, whole fish, lamb chops, spanakopita and honey-soaked pastries. Ditmars Boulevard, near the last stop on the N and W trains, is lined with tavernas and bakeries, and 30th Avenue is packed with cafés.

Astoria is much more than Greek, though. Steinway Street has a lively stretch of Egyptian and Middle Eastern cafés, bakeries and hookah lounges, and the neighborhood also has strong Brazilian, Balkan and Latin American communities.

Don't miss in Astoria

• Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden, run by a Czech and Slovak community association since 1910 and often called the oldest beer garden in the city. On a summer evening, the huge tree-shaded garden is one of the happiest places in New York.
• Astoria Park, on the waterfront, with views of the Hell Gate Bridge and a huge 1930s public pool.
• The Museum of the Moving Image, next to the historic Kaufman Astoria Studios, where films were being made as early as the 1920s.